


The Couple in the Cottage Next Door

by suitesamba



Series: The Cottage Series [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-07
Packaged: 2017-11-15 20:35:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/531420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suitesamba/pseuds/suitesamba
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The children are spending the night with Aunt Luna and Harry and Severus finally get some adult time together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Couple in the Cottage Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> **A/N:** This is the sequel to “The Cottage Next Door” and “The Man in the Cottage next Door,” two tales written for and in celebration of their milestone birthdays. Part 3 brings Severus and Harry together without the children—finally. Of course, the kids make themselves rather hard to forget.
> 
> **Disclaimer:** Not mine. Never were. Never will be. No profit is being made from this amateur work.

Severus Snape was nervous.

And that was ridiculous.

He was, after all, more than fifty years old. He’d been around the block once or twice. He wasn’t a romantic—not by any stretch—but he’d had several relationships and his share of youthful—and not so useful—fumbles in the dark.

He wiped sweaty palms against his trousers and stood before the full-length mirror on his closet door. It was a very old mirror and a bit wavy, and it made him look taller and thinner than he was.

“You look nervous, dear,” said the mirror in an effeminate voice. “It’s not like you’re seeing the Saviour of the wizarding world.Relax!”

Severus smoothed out his dress shirt then looked smugly at the mirror.

“As a matter of fact, I am. So there.”

He almost— _almost_ —stuck his tongue out at it. 

Well, there was nothing for it. He was as presentable as he was ever going to be. He’d showered—twice—washed his hair, shaved (once with the razor, then a second pass with a shaving charm), brushed his teeth, gargled with Warlock Wimple’s Revitalizing Breath Elixir, put a roll of mints in his trouser pocket and tied his hair back at the nape of his neck, then untied it again.

He was wearing his best boxers, his _lucky_ lack silk boxers. He saved them for special occasions. _Very_ special occasions.

Harry was making dinner. Severus was only to bring bread and wine. He had, of course, picked out the wine himself, but the bread he’d ordered in from Hogwarts. Why heat up the kitchen and get flour everywhere when the house elves were so talented and so conveniently beholden to the Headmaster?

Harry’s front door was ajar when he arrived at precisely five minutes before seven. He immediately heard wailing.

“Al, you are to get right back through that Floo to your Aunt Luna’s house. You can see Mr. Snape tomorrow. I promise.”

“But I wanna see him TONIGHT! Why do you get to see him and not me? It’s not FAIR!”

Oh, this was interesting.

“Because I have a date with him and you don’t.”

“But I like him too. Can’t we have a date with him together?”

Oh no. No no no no no.

“No. Absolutely not. This is an _adult_ night.”

“What’s an adult night?” The boy was persistent.

“A night for adults. To do adult things. Alone. Without children.”

“What kind of adult things? Is he gonna kiss you again?”

“That’s enough. Your Aunt Luna is waiting for you. I’ll see you in the morning.” Harry’s voice was firm. He meant business.

“Fine! But give him my drawing. You promised!” There was a tremor at the end of the phrase. Severus felt a little tug at his heart. Indigestion? He hadn’t even eaten yet.

Harry’s voice was soft, forgiving. “I will, Al. Now come here.”

There was a silent pause, a muffled sob, then the whoosh of the Floo. Severus waited a minute, then knocked on the door frame.

“Come on in, Severus,” called Harry. He poked his head out of the kitchen as Severus walked in. 

Severus walked into the kitchen and placed the wine and the bread on the counter. Harry smiled at him and handed him a corkscrew.

“I could use a glass right about now. Had a bit of trouble with Al. Seems he’s a bit taken with you and wanted to join us tonight.”

“Ah. You persuaded him otherwise?”

“I did. With difficulty.” Harry stirred a pot that was boiling on the stove. “He left a drawing for you.”

“Oh?” Severus raised an eyebrow then asked suspiciously. “Are there willies?”

Harry laughed. It was an easy sound, pleasant and relaxed. “You’ll have to see for yourself. Actually, each of the kids left you a little something—on the table on the porch.”

Severus opened the wine and poured two glasses. He handed one to Harry and followed him out onto the porch.

“The letter is from James,” said Harry as Severus paused by the table. A letter, with “Mr. Snape” printed in an uphill cant, sat in front of a pile of Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans. Beside them was Al’s drawing, done on an extra-large sheet of parchment and turned upside down.

Severus picked up the letter and glanced at Harry. 

“Have you…?”

Harry grinned. “Yes. I helped him with the big words. But the content is all his.”

Severus opened the letter and read it aloud.

_Dear Mr. Snape: Do not eat the Bertie Botts Beans. Lily wanted you to have the good ones so she licked them all to taste them. And I am sorry for Al’s picture. And I am sorry we took your magazine and that Al draws willies now. Be careful if you go in our room. It is a big mess because Al never picks up his toys and Dad is not a house elf. You can sleep in my bed tonight if you and Dad decide to have a sleep over because we’re staying with Aunt Luna and she gives us cake for breakfast. The end. James._

“The end?” said Severus. A smile flitted across his face. He couldn’t have suppressed it had he tried.

“He’s a bit new at letter writing,” explained Harry. 

“It is an adequate effort,” said Severus. “His penmanship is actually quite good. And it was very proactive of him to warn me about the beans.”

“Lily must really like you,” said Harry softly as he smiled at the little hill of beans on the table. “She loves candy but hates those nasty flavors, yet she sat there and went through an entire box, and it had two ear waxes and a couple of vomits in it.”

“Noted,” said Severus. “We will discard the rest of them and you will tell her that I ate them all with gusto. After all, it is the thought that counts, isn’t it?”

“Keep that in mind when you see Al’s drawing,” answered Harry.

“Oh my.” Severus had turned over the parchment. “This is…complex.”

“It’s a multi-panel piece,” said Harry. “You need to read from left to right, top to bottom.”

“Do I really look like a giant tongue depressor in my swimming shorts?”

Harry snorted. 

There were five drawings. The first showed someone out in the ocean, head and shoulders above the water, with three fins—sharks—circling. The head was rather small but had an obvious lightning bolt scar on it. The word ‘Help!’ was printed inside a word bubble above Harry’s head.

“Sharks?” asked Severus.

“Apparently.” Harry grinned.

In the next frame, Severus—wearing a pair of black swimming shorts—was standing on the beach in such a pose that it looked like he was about to dive in the water.

“The water is too shallow there,” he said, frowning. “I’ll break my neck.”

“Git,” teased Harry.

In the third frame, Severus was bobbing in the water near Harry and was holding all three sharks by the tail above his head, as if whipping them back and forth.

“I have a wand, you know,” he said.

“Oh, this is much more romantic,” answered Harry. “My hero….”

In the fourth frame, Harry was on the beach with three small figures hugging him. It was a close-up of a family mob, and Al had drawn big tears on James’ and Lily’s faces. 

“Al’s not crying,” observed Severus.

“Someone has to be the strong one.”

And finally, finally…

“Ah.”

“I think I’m on the bottom,” said Harry. “I hope that’s all right with you.”

Severus looked up from the drawing. The last panel featured himself and Harry, lying on the beach, kissing. It was rather hard to tell who was who. And he could only assume they were only kissing as the heads were in very close proximity, and whoever was on top was still wearing long swim shorts. it was obvious they were still on the beach because Al had drawn in the dead sharks and a seagull. The sharks had willies. The seagull was perched on his arse.

“Where does he get these ideas?” asked Severus, shaking his head but secretly impressed with Al’s obvious talent and creativity, no matter how inappropriate they may be.

Harry sighed. “Arthur’s got a telly rigged up for Molly now and she watches daytime serials. The kids spent the first week of summer there and Al became quite the little addict. Pair that with the Super Hero craze both he and James are going through and…”

“It’s all right with me,” said Severus.

Harry looked puzzled.

“That you’re on the bottom.” 

Severus thought it was a good thing that, when they looked at each other then, neither one of them blushed.

~*~

“The oysters were delicious.”

“They were, weren’t they?” answered Harry. They had dined on the porch as the sun set over the water, bathing the beach in shadowy oranges and golds. Conversation over dinner had been relaxed, much more natural than Severus had expected. And while the children had come up more than once, the conversation hadn’t been dominated by them. 

Severus found himself smiling frequently, noticing the stretch at the corners of his mouth as it moved into the unaccustomed position time and again. 

 

He was confident in his job; less confident in his inherent abilities to raise three children alone. He didn’t seem to care much what people thought of him. He was fiercely protective of his privacy, and more so of his children. He didn’t bow to the Ministry and function as their poster boy. He’d not allowed any representation of his person to be used in sculptures, statues or war memorials. He had opinions—and he voiced them without apology. He was exceedingly interested in Hogwarts—the curriculum, the professors, what Severus did as Headmaster and in his other pursuits as well.

Had he really expected Harry to be selfish? The Ministry’s puppet? A reckless rule breaker?

He certainly hadn’t expected that arse, or the casual way Harry touched his arm, or the ease in which they cleaned up, Harry washing while Severus charmed each dish dry and placed it on the counter.

“You don’t use magic much around here, do you?” asked Severus as Harry rinsed off another plate and stacked it in the drainer.

“I use it when it’s necessary, and when I’m in a hurry. I can’t tell you how much it helped when the kids were babies. But now, I use magic so much at work that sometimes it’s a relief to come home and peel potatoes or fold laundry by hand.”

He took the bowl Harry had just washed from him and dried it, using the drying charm without comment.

The moon was shining over the shoreline when they stepped off the porch stairs and made their way down to the beach. Harry carried a beach blanket.

“Ever go skinny dipping at night?” he asked Severus a few minutes later. He spread the blanket on the sand and began unbuttoning his shirt. “You do swim, don’t you?”

“I swim,” said Severus. He was watching Harry’s fingers on the buttons. He held out his hand obediently as Harry handed him the shirt, kicked off his sandals, and started on his trousers.

Severus dropped Harry’s shirt onto the blanket and stepped out of his shoes. As he began to unbutton his own shirt, he hoped the moonlight would be forgiving of his physical flaws.

“Here, let me help.” It was the ghost of a voice, and he realized, as Harry’s hand moved to the waistband of his trousers, that he’d been looking down at the ground as he undressed. Harry was behind him now, leaning against him, and the agile hands worked open the closure and pulled the zip down. The trousers fell as Harry stepped in even closer, rubbing what was undoubtedly his bare form against Severus’ arse as his hands smoothed down over his boxers.

“Silk,” he whispered into Severus’ ear. “Perhaps I can shove these in my mouth later when you shag me so I don’t make too much noise.”

Fuck. The boxers were slipping down now even as his cock was hardening. A moment later, they were pooled at his feet and Harry was gone, running before him, into the softly lapping waves.

They were in waist-high water when he caught him, swimming underwater and grabbing him around his thighs, pulling him down and wrestling for control until they were both out of breath, letting the waves push them back to shore until it was shallow enough that he could straddle Harry with both their heads out of the water. Harry’s hands came up around his neck.

“Come here,” he said.

The kiss was wet, salty. Harry tasted of wine and chocolate and brine and sand. He loved kissing Harry’s lips, but he slid his lips down to mouth his neck, his shoulder, while Harry’s legs came up and tightened around his hips and arse, drawing their groins together for a taste of that tantalizing friction.

Harry laughed when they were pummeled by a big wave, when it pushed them in a few feet then pulled them out again.

“I’ve sand in my arse,” he breathed into Severus’ mouth.

“You’ll have a lot more than sand in your arse soon enough,” answered Severus, pressing his groin against him with promise. He spoke with lips just above Harry’s, then pressed them down again, melding his mouth over Harry’s, running his tongue over them while Harry returned the kiss and met his tongue and thrust up against him. 

He broke his lips away from Harry’s mouth and moved down to taste his chin, sucking on it then laving it with his tongue, pressing open-mouthed kisses down his neck and onto his chest. He rolled his pelvis, his cock hard and needy, then worked his way down and fastened his mouth on one of Harry’s nipples. It was small, pebbled with arousal and the cool air, and he sucked it into his mouth and with purpose, kissed it, mouthed it, pulled on it until Harry arched and moaned.

“So good. More. Yeah, harder. Fuck that’s good, so good, ahhhh…” Harry rutted up against Severus, and Severus moved his mouth to the other side, but worked his hand up to pinch and squeeze and rub the one he had just left until Harry was nearly jerking beneath him.

“I want to fuck you,” said Severus as he released the nipple and moved his hand down to Harry’s cock, passing it behind his bollocks, then returning to grasp his length.

“Lube in my trouser pocket,” panted Harry. They struggled up and back to the beach, falling onto the blanket and tearing through the clothes until the lube was found and opened and Severus was folding Harry’s knees back toward his chest and working his hand down to his arse, parting his cheeks, grazing over his pucker with one lubed fingertip.

Harry made the most erotic sounds as Severus prepared him. One finger, sliding in to the knuckle, out again, then back in, and out and in to the second knuckle as Harry grunted and splayed his knees farther apart. Severus took his time. Cupped Harry’s bollocks with his other hand, leaned forward, pushed deeper. Harry was so…receptive. So wanting. Needy. Staring at him with heavy-lidded eyes. Watching his face. Making the most delicious, intense expressions. Sighs melting into moans growing into grunts. He let go of Harry’s bollocks and brought his fingers to Harry’s face, pushed the hair from his eyes, wiped a finger over Harry’s moist lips.

Harry caught the side of the finger between his teeth, biting down on it lightly, then sucked the tip into his mouth, running his tongue over it as if…as if…

Now it was Severus’ turn to grunt as Harry’s talented mouth and tongue worked his finger. He pulled it out, reluctantly, and gave up his preparations for a moment to fall back down onto Harry, greedily attacking his mouth, rolling with Harry until suddenly _he_ was on his back, and Harry’s head was between his legs and that mouth, of fuck, that _mouth_ , so warm, so soft, was on his cock, licking the shaft, tonguing the head, sucking on it possessively, taking it in farther, deeper, until he was so deep and his balls were drawing up, shuddering….

“Guh…” With great effort, he pulled Harry’s head up and off him, rolled him over and went back to work with two fingers now, desperate to be inside him. Two fingers scissoring, plunging, curling up, grazing his prostate. Three fingers, gripping the base of Harry’s cock tightly. Too early to come. Not yet. Not yet. Pushing his legs up, pushing into him with a grunt and a sigh, liquid velvet, molten heat, tight like a whalebone corset, delicious friction. Pressing against him, pulling Harry’s legs over his shoulders, turning his head, biting Harry’s thigh. Harry, pelvis straightening to meet the thrusts, greedily taking, generously giving. The slap of his sac, the scrape of coarse hair, the scent of arousal heavy in the humid, salty air. 

Angling to hit his prostate again…and again…and again. Pulling those sounds from him. Soft grunts, long groans, rising mewls, panted syllables… _fuck…Sev…good…more…_ The grit of sand on his knees, the sheen of perspiration on his skin where his hands gripped hips and arse. Pulling out was a vacuous loss, driving home an exhilarating victory, a lap around the Quidditch Pitch with the crowd on its feet, cheering, applauding, shouting… _Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!_

Harry arched beneath him and he slid home again, released Harry’s hip and wrapped one shaky hand around the thick cock, squeezed and slid and _fuck_ the velvety-skinned cock was so hard, so wanting, and Harry keened, the sound riding the crests of the waves, and spurted into his hand, onto his own belly, pressing upward, clenching, pulling him in deeper as Severus’ vision wavered, as he slammed home one last time and came, falling onto Harry while he was still pulsing, the two of them a tangle of limbs as his heart beat so fast and so hard that he knew it was boring a hole in Harry even as Harry gripped him harder, and pressed his face into his shoulder, and shuddered and fuck were those _tears?_

He struggled up on his arms and looked down at Harry, happy, crying, tears leaking from his eyes and smiling…smiling… _so good…so good_ …and he bent and kissed the corner of Harry’s eye, tasting the tears, kissed his eyelid, the tip of his nose. Didn’t stop to wonder what had taken him over, who this person was who had possessed his body, this Romeo ( _but soft, what light through yonder window breaks?_ ) who made love by the sea and kissed away the tears of his lover. No longer a Severus Snape he knew. A stranger who let children bury him in the sand and fed them chocolate ice cream and romanced their father.

Romanced. Their father.

Harry was rubbing his nose against his own and Severus sighed and rubbed it back then pressed a long, slow kiss on Harry’s mouth.

“I’m keeping you,” he said with more certainty in his voice than he had felt in years, since he had lain on the filthy floor of the Shrieking Shack and resolved that he _would_ live.

“I come with baggage,” said Harry softly, pressing a kiss to the sensitive skin in front of Severus’ ear.

“The children are not baggage,” Severus replied. “They are…assets.”

“They’re responsibilities,” returned Harry.

“But not liabilities,” said Severus. He lowered himself beside their father and lay bonelessly on the rumpled beach blanket, eyes faraway on the moon and stars above them. 

“I just had the best sex of my life and we’re talking about the kids,” said Harry with a low chuckle. He propped himself up on one elbow and turned toward Severus, looking down at him with shining eyes. “If we keep this up, I could talk you in to having another.”

“If we keep this up, Al is going to be drawing more than willies.”

“Hell, Al is already planning the wedding, Severus. The kids love you. Apparently, they’ve decided that you’re what’s missing in their lives.”

“Me?” Severus stared up at Harry. “Your children are delusional.”

“Delusional?” Harry laughed. “Then so am I. But like me, they have impeccable taste.”

 

__

Six Years Later

The Family from the Cottage Next Door

“Why do I have to ride the stupid train? I could just Floo in with you this afternoon and I’d still get there before the train….”

At that statement, Lily immediately piped up. “I’ll ride it, Father. You can take Al back with you and then there’ll be a seat for me. Can I have some sickles for the lunch cart witch?”

“May I and no, Lily, you may not. Al will get on this train and you will Floo home with the rest of us. Your turn will come, young lady.”

“Hey! There’s Dad! He did make it!”

“I told you he would be here, Al. William Augustus, no! Hand that to me at once.”

“Da!” William handed his Father the cigarette butt he had almost put in his mouth and dashed on still chubby legs toward Harry, who was walking purposefully toward his family from the platform entrance, scarlet robes flapping behind him in the wind. Lily went off after William with a long-suffering sigh.

“She wanted a sister, you know,” said Al.

“And she got another brother. That is the way of things, Al.”

“Hey.” Harry had reached them, having scooped up little William along the way. William’s arms were around his neck in a tight hold. Harry glanced at Severus’ hand and bit back a smile.

“Smoking again, Severus? Really, now…I know it’s been stressful since he hit two but….”

“It has been stressful since he learned to use his opposable thumbs effectively.” Severus glanced down at the half-smoked, filthy cigarette in his hand, pocketed it then took out his wand to perform a sanitation spell on William’s hands. William, seeing the wand coming, stuck his small hands in his tiny pockets and shook his head vehemently.

“I don’t want to go on the train, Dad.” Al’s voice rose over Severus.’ “I can go back with Father and help get ready for the feast tonight. And I can pick out my bed before the others get there and….”

“You can’t pick out your bed because you don’t know which house you’ll be sorted to,” said Harry calmly, handing off William to Severus and kneeling down on the platform in front of Al. He took his son by the shoulders as he spoke. “It might not be the one you’re expecting, Al.”

Severus rolled his eyes. 

“It _has_ to be Slytherin, Dad. Look at what happened to James!” He leaned in closer to his dad. “We can’t disappoint Father _again_!”

“Your Father was not disappointed with James and will be proud of you no matter which house you go to. Won’t you, Severus?” Harry looked up over Al’s shoulder at Severus.

Severus sighed.

“Of course I will, Al,” said Severus, ruffling the boy’s hair from behind and mouthing “Slytherin” at Harry.

“You’ll love the train ride, Al,” said Harry, giving his middle son an encouraging smile.

“But I’ll miss William,” said Al, grasping at straws.

“You will see William frequently,” said Severus. “And Lily, though I notice you don’t plan on missing _her_ ”

Al looked beseechingly at Harry. “You’ll keep her out of my room, right?” 

Harry smiled. “Of course I will. I’ll ward the door as soon as I get home. Now, do you need money for the snack cart?”

“I hate cauldron cakes.”

“Then you have the sandwiches your Father made for you?”

Al sighed and nodded. “He gave me carrots and celery too.”

“And crisps?” said Harry, the corner of his mouth twitching.

“And crisps,” admitted Al.

“And a chocolate cupcake?”

“ _And_ a chocolate cupcake,” said Al, a smile playing on his nervous face.

Harry leaned in and hugged his son, whispering conspiratorially in his ear. “Your Father has a big surprise waiting for the students this year, Al—something he arranged for everyone but that he pushed for especially hard because he knows _you’ll_ love it.”

Al pulled back and looked at his Dad. “What? What is it?” he begged, eyes wide.

“You’ll find out in the morning when you get your schedules.” Harry grinned. “Now come on, we need to get your trunk on the train and get you settled.” He glanced up at Severus and met his eyes for a long moemnt. Severus had, as a result of a two year-long struggle with the Board of Governors, succeeded in getting fine arts on the curriculum at Hogwarts. Al would be moving directly into the intermediate drawing class.

Fifteen minutes later, after James had returned for the required goodbye hugs and had pulled Lily’s long braid and kissed William’s nose, the boys clambered aboard and the train pulled away. Lily gave an exaggerated sigh even as she waved to her brothers and held tightly to her Father’s hand. “It will _never_ be me,” she said dramatically.

“It will be you all too soon,” said Harry, also with a sigh, but his as genuine as genuine could be. “And after you, then William.”

“And after William, my baby sister?” asked Lily, turning to look imploringly up at Severus with her brown, baleful eyes.

“Even if we did decide to have another child—and that is a _big_ if—we cannot promise you a sister, Lily,” said Severus as he gave a final wave to the train and turned, one arm around Harry, one hand in Lily’s. They walked slowly with the rest of the families toward the barrier. “We have discussed this. The gender of the child is determined by a specific chromosome in the male gamete—the spermatozoan—when it fuses with the ovum to produce the zygote. There are tens of millions of these spermatozoa in a single ejaculation….”

“In only 10cc of semen!” added Lily. “That’s about a spoonful, Dad,” she explained to Harry helpfully.

“Phenomenal,” muttered Harry, glancing darkly at Severus.

“And the one that reaches the ovum first and successfully penetrates it ….”

“Is the winner!” exclaimed Lily.

“…determines the gender,” finished Severus.

“Why can’t we be like birds and frogs?” asked Lily, exasperated, as they joined the queue for the public Floos.

“Birds and frogs?” asked Harry.

“In birds and frogs, and in some types of insects, the female determines gender,” Severus explained to Harry patiently, and a bit indulgently. Harry rolled his eyes.

“Couldn’t you _Accio_ the Ys and give the Xs a better chance?” asked Lily.

“No,” answered Severus as Harry snorted. “If gender determination were that easy, the Weasleys would have produced a girl long before Ginevra.”

“We’ll just have to keep trying then,” said Lily as the woman in front of them in line turned her head and gave Severus and Harry an interested look.

“It’s too bad we can’t keep trying in the conventional way,” whispered Harry, taking a handful of Floo powder from the attendant and moving forward with William. William loved Flooing and was gleefully chanting “Spin! Spin! Spin! Spin! Spin!” and waving at Severus and Lily.

“Oh, we can _try_ ,” responded Severus, obediently waving bye-bye back to the delighted William. “It certainly will do no harm to _try_.”

“Whose spermatozoa made William, anyway?” asked Lily a moment later just before she and her father spun out of sight.

The family behind them stepped forward, the little boy tugging on his father’s hand.

“Daddy, what’s a spermatozoa?” 

_Fin_


End file.
